Although Illinois has not enacted a comprehensive bargaining statute, school districts have been using the collective bargaining process to determine teacher salaries, benefits, and conditions of employment for more than a decade. Nevertheless, since the 1977-78 school year, Illinois public schools have experienced 139 teacher strikes. The purpose of this report is to provide information to the State Board of Education for the purpose of considering whether a comprehensive law in Illinois would be helpful in normalizing the relationships between teachers and school boards. The first two sections of the document contain a variety of data: a brief discussion of the status of teacher/board bargaining in the state; legislative principles set forth by the State Board of Education; a summary of state statutes that directly affect the teacher/board bargaining process; a comparison of two recently defeated comprehensive collective bargaining bills; and the preferences of the Illinois Association of School Boards regarding any bill that might pass in the Illinois General Assembly. The next section of the report explains the methodology and presents the findings from a study of nine states (selected because of their comparability to Illinois) that have collective bargaining laws covering public school teachers. The extent of strikes and the unique features of each state in regard to collective bargaining are described. The text concludes with staff observations gained from the study, and labor and management viewpoints concerning various bargaining statute provisions. Extensive appendices include sample questionnaires, surveys, and summaries of court cases. (MLF)